HDB Presented 15 Awards To Consultants & Contractors 3 Nov 2011

Minister for National Development, Mr Khaw Boon Wan, gave out 15 awards tonight (2 November 2011) to HDB’s consultants and contractors, for their exemplary performance and innovative efforts in the development of new HDB projects.

HDB has been providing quality homes to Singaporeans for over 50 years. It has been improving its towns and flats to meet evolving aspirations and increased expectations.

This would not have been possible without the excellent relationship between HDB and its partners. The HDB Awards was set up to affirm the efforts of industry partners in working together with HDB to provide well-designed and well-constructed public housing for all Singaporeans.

There are two types of HDB Awards – the Design Award and the Construction Award.

HDB Design Award

The HDB Design Award recognizes architectural consultants for their outstanding design of public housing projects. The Design Awards are an important benchmark for future HDB projects and has inspired many good designs since its inception.

The HDB Design Award has two categories – “Completed Projects” and “To-be-Built”. Projects under the “To-be-Built” category have not been constructed, but exhibited innovative and refreshing designs.

The Construction Award gives recognition to deserving contractors who have shown outstanding project management, construction quality, public relations as well as innovation when undertaking HDB building projects.

As part of HDB’s efforts to achieve national sustainability goals and to further strengthen its professional capabilities, HDB has formulated the “Roadmap for Better Living in HDB Towns”. This Roadmap will set out the key priorities for HDB’s professional focus over the next 5 to 10 years, in order for HDB to deliver a better living environment and meet the evolving lifestyle aspirations of HDB residents.

“It has been a year since I joined HDB. I have found HDB to be an organization with many dedicated and committed colleagues. There is an amazing reservoir of professional experience ranging from town planning, to architecture, to structural design, R&D innovations and real estate. This combination of professional know how has been instrumental in improving the quality of life of Singaporeans in HDB towns. Going forward, we would like to set out a clear roadmap for HDB over the next 5 to 10 years to further deepen this professional expertise in order to build better towns for our residents ,” said Dr Cheong, HDB’s CEO.

The Roadmap is underpinned by three key thrusts:

Well-designed Towns,

Sustainable Towns

Community-centric Towns

Thrust 1: Well-designed Towns

Good designs add value to HDB towns, enhance their character, and improve the overall quality of life of Singaporeans. In recent years, HDB has actively involved the private sector architects to design its flats. Hence, it is even more critical that HDB actively oversees the master planning and overall urban design of its towns. With so many external consultants playing a part in the development of HDB towns, there is a greater need to guide and work with them to attain the overall planning vision for our towns.

Thrust 2: Sustainable Towns

HDB will support the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint efforts by pursuing suitable green initiatives and sustainable solutions for HDB towns. Building sustainable towns means that residents will be able to enjoy a cleaner, greener, and more comfortable living environment. This involves extensive collaborations with private sector professionals to create resource-efficient buildings and intelligent systems for effective energy, water, materials and waste management.

Thrust 3: Community-centric Towns

The first two thrusts on design and sustainability represent the ‘hardware’ elements of public housing. However, physical infrastructure alone does not make a vibrant and endearing town. The third thrust thus focuses on the `heart-ware’ of building cohesive and resilient communities. HDB aims to encourage more residents to take ownership of the facilities and to build up stronger neighbourly ties in the town they live in.

The “Roadmap for Better Living in HDB Towns” is a forward-looking approach that will guide HDB in shaping its towns over the next 10 years. Through the strengthening of HDB’s professional capacity with the help of private sector expertise and the community, HDB aspires to further improve the living environment for all Singaporeans.

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